It was founded at RoanokeIsland in what was then Virginia (now North Carolina, United States).

Stephen B. Weeks wrote in 1891, "their language is the English of 300 years ago, and their names are in many cases the same as those borne by the original colonists." Weeks, however compiled his report from local hearsay, rather than through empirical observation.

RoanokeIsland, NC The image is one of the most haunting in American folklore: Eleanor Dare cradling her infant daughter as they struggle through a vast wilderness, seemingly forgotten by her father who brought them to an unfamiliar land, then left them to fend for themselves.

By the time the caravan arrived at RoanokeIsland in July, 1587, to check on the 15 men left behind a year earlier, he had grown impatient with the White and anxious to resume the hunt for Spanish shipping.

Today, the north end of RoanokeIsland is regularly visited by historians and archaeologists hoping to uncover new evidence as to the fate of the colony.

The first English Colony of Roanoke, originally consisting of 100 householders, was founded in 1585, 22 years before Jamestown and 37 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, under the ultimate authority of Sir Walter Raleigh.

This foreshadowed one of the great mysteries of North America, Roanoke's so-called "Lost Colony" of 90 men, 17 women and 9 children, founded in 1587 and discovered to be missing in 1590, but for the word "Croatan" carved on a post.

This fell out the first of June 1586, and the eight of the same came advertisement to me from captain Stafford, lying at my lord Admiral's Island, that he had discovered a great fleet of three and twenty sails: but whether they were friends or foes, he could not yet discern.

While many of the attractions focus on the island’s history as the site of the first attempted English colonization of America, there are other attractions too, like the North Carolina Aquarium and the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, that you won’t want to miss.

From the 1,500 live oaks and crape myrtles planted along the billboard-free corridor on island's northern end to the veteran seafaring vessels at rest in Wanchese harbor on the southern end, RoanokeIsland is unique, a place like no other.

A similar legend claims that the Indians of Person County, North Carolina are descended from the British colonists of RoanokeIsland.

On the other hand, American anthropologist Lee Miller, in Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony proposed that the expedition was sabotaged from the beginning by Sir Walter Raleigh's rival at court, Elizabeth's "spymaster," Francis Walsingham, while other theorists contend that the colony moved wholesale, and was later destroyed.

Croatoan CROATOAN [Croatoan] unexplained letters found (1590) carved on a tree on RoanokeIsland off North Carolina by Governor John White when he returned to the colony from England and discovered the colonists gone.

She was the daughter of Ananias and Elenor Dare, members of Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated colony that settled RoanokeIsland on the North Carolina coast.

Due to Spanish attacks on England, White was waylayed in England for three years, and when he returned to RoanokeIsland in 1590 there was no sign of his granddaughter or the other colonists.

RoanokeIsland was permanently settled in the mid-1600s, and many of the original family names — Etheridge, Baum, Daniels and others — are still very much alive on the island.

In 1999 the Town of Manteo celebrated its centennial birthday with many events, the publication of a coffee-table history book, Manteo, A RoanokeIsland Town by Angel Ellis Khoury, and the establishment of a centennial clock on the corner of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh streets downtown.

White took this to mean that they had moved to Croatoan Island, but he was unable to conduct a search; a hurricane hit the Outer Banks and blew his fleet out to sea.

Miller's most significant historical contribution, supported by a good deal of evidence, is that the expedition was sabotaged from the beginning by Sir Walter Raleigh's rival at court, Elizabeth's "spymaster," Francis Walsingham.

It has played at Waterside Theater on RoanokeIsland during the summer months near-continuously since that time with the only interruption being World War II.

The RoanokeIsland facility was added to the system in 1998, twenty-five years after the founding of the museum in Beaufort.

The mission is to preserve the maritime history and culture of RoanokeIsland and the surrounding region in northeastern North Carolina for the public by collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting the material culture and history of its people.

RoanokeIsland is located on the Outer Banks, North Carolina 5 minutes from Nags Head.

Adding to the cultural delights of RoanokeIsland are the finely crafted short plays Elizabeth R and Bloody Mary and the Virgin Queen.

Named for a RoanokeIsland Native American who accompanied English explorers back to Great Britain in the 16th century, Manteo is one of the oldest Outer Banks communities and has long been a commercial and governmental hub for the area.

Adjacent to the visitor center at RoanokeIsland Festival Park, the Outer Banks History Center is a remarkable repository of North Carolina state and regional history.

Roanoke Revisited supplements concepts in core curricula courses and provides teachers and their students with appropriated information for the study of pre-colonial America.

The Roanoke Colonies Research Office, which acts as a clearinghouse for information related to all aspects of study regarding the Roanoke Colonies including such fields of study as anthropology, American studies, archaeology, biology, history, geography, literature and Native American studies, is a good website to visit for the serious student.

Archaeological investigations in the area have resulted in the reconstruction of an earthen structure similar to the sconce Ralph Lane is known to have built in Puerto Rico in 1585 en route to RoanokeIsland.

www.nps.gov /fora/roanokerev.htm (2171 words)

Roanoke Island, North Carolina(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

During 1862, Federal forces led by General Ambrose Burnside attacked Confederate positions on RoanokeIsland, which is off the coast of North Carolina in the chain of islands known as the Outer Banks.

RoanokeIsland controlled the inner seas of North Carolina.

Midway up the island the Confederate forces of 1,500 constructed earthworks along their defensive line and waited for the advance of Federal troops, who made a flanking movement through the swamps.

Connected to the villages of the barrier islands to the east and the mainland villages to the west, Manteo's central location has always been ideal for commerce, even before there were bridges and the cars to travel over them.

A visit to RoanokeIsland is a blend of the past and the present.

Also overlooking the Manteo waterfront, the historic RoanokeIsland Inn, whose original building dates to the mid-19th century, provides rocking chairs on the second-floor porch with a view of the gardens and the bay.

The Island House Bed & Breakfast is located in the old fishing village of Wanchese, on RoanokeIsland.

RoanokeIsland also has some of the best restaurants on the outer banks.

The Island House is a Quaint, Quiet, and Unique romantic retreat which provides a smoke free adult atmosphere, although, smoking is permitted outside on the porch.

www.islandhouse-bb.com (251 words)

The Lost Colony | Roanoke Island, North Carolina's Outer Banks(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)

Manteo is the ''big city" on RoanokeIsland, a 3-mile-by-12-mile stretch of land with about 7,000 residents that sits in the sounds between the mainland and the barrier islands of the Outer Banks.

To historians, the island is best known as the site of the first English-speaking colonists in America, who arrived to form ''The Cittie of Ralegh" in 1587, two decades before Jamestown, Va., and 33 years before the Mayflower reached Plymouth in 1620.

In 1867, two years after the war, former landowners on RoanokeIsland reclaimed their land, and most of the freedmen were forced to leave the island.

On RoanokeIsland the Englishmen were entertained, with a refined hospitality, by the mother of King Wingina (who was absent); and wherever they went, friendship was the rule.

The red men guessed shrewdly, for Lane believed their stories, and with a large number of followers went up the swift stream of the Roanoke, until he was satisfied that he had been deceived by pure fictions.

It was conjectured that the faithful Lord of Roanoke had saved their lives, and when they seemed to be abandoned by their countrymen, they had been incorporated with a native tribe and amalgamated with them.

Once on board, you will be transported back to the 16th century as the sailors, dressed in authentic garb and speaking in the traditional 16th century English accent, tell of their experience on the three month trip to this land.

During the summer months, the RoanokeIsland Queens Pass provides visitors with the benefits of the Attractions Pass, but includes additional savings on a ticket to see The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama, also located on RoanokeIsland.

The RoanokeIsland Attractions Pass and Queens Passes are available at each admission-based attraction, the Aycock Brown Welcome Center in Kitty Hawk, the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau in Manteo and other area businesses.

-Chief Wingina of the Algonkin-speaking Native American tribe on RoanokeIsland, was the first Native contact that Sir Greenville and his men had upon reaching and coasting off of Virginia, or what was known at the time as Windgancon.

Sir Francis Drake takes back to England all but two settlers from the First Roanoke Settlement when he goes to RoanokeIsland on his was back to England from the West Indies.

New Light on the Roanoke Colony: A Preliminary Examination of a Stone Found In Chowan County, North Carolina The Journal of Southern History, Vol.4, Iss.2, (May 1938), 148-163.